Land Use Bylaw

Land Use Bylaw Update

Cochrane's rapid growth has presented new and diverse development trends with an ever-increasing level of complexity. It is important that Cochrane’s Land Use Bylaw (LUB) meets the land use and development needs of our residents while reflecting Cochrane’s unique character, so Town Administration has initiated a comprehensive review and re-write the LUB to ensure it remains current and effective in regulating land uses and development within the Town.

About the Land Use Bylaw

Every homeowner or business owner in Cochrane is impacted by the Land Use Bylaw (LUB), even if they don’t know it. Before their building was built or before their neighbourhood was developed, the Land Use Bylaw established rules to govern what could be built where and for what purpose. The Land Use Bylaw is the most specific and often the most powerful tool in the hierarchy of planning documents. It is used to implement the community’s shared vision for development in Cochrane.
• Current Land Use Bylaw 01/2004 (Consolidated Version)

More info: email Planning or 403-851-2570.

Amendments
Requests for Land Use Bylaw amendments go through our statutory plan amendment process. 

Current projects
Accessory building regulations
An open house on May 25 presented proposed changes to accessory building regulations. 

If you have any questions regarding the proposed changes please contact Riley Welden, 403-851-2577

Accessory suites

Changes have been proposed to speed up and streamline the application process:

  • no wider driveways (as per Council and SDAB decisions)
  • clarify requirement to consider safe access
  • change of development authority (to development officer)
  • administrative changes to align regulations
  • Missed the open house? View the information boards.

Public Service (PS) District Review Project

The Town of Cochrane has initiated a review of the Public Service (PS) District, a land use district (zone) defined in the Town’s Land Use Bylaw (LUB) and typically assigned to properties with cultural, educational, institutional, recreational and other public land uses.

Intent:

  • To ensure the Public Service District and Land Use Bylaw meet the requirements of the Municipal Government Act
  • To ensure the Public Service District remains current and effective in regulating cultural, educational, institutional, recreational and other public-related land uses.

Steps in the review:

  • identify locations with the PS designation
  • assess the appropriateness of the designation
  • propose updates to land use designation (if required)

Recent amendments
West Valley Land Use update
Council approved the redesignation at their May 23 meeting.

Background
In 2016, Town Planning identified 52 residential dwellings in West Valley that do not comply with the regulations of their district, R-3 Residential Multi-Unit Dwellings. It’s likely the misalignment occurred during a previous update to the Land Use Bylaw. As a result, these dwellings are considered “non-conforming uses” per the Municipal Government Act.

What does this mean?
These dwellings are legally allowed to exist, but homeowners are not able to enlarge, add to, rebuild or structurally alter the dwelling while it is considered a “non-conforming use.”